Sowing kernels for food safety: Importance of rapid on-site detction of pesticide residues in agricultural foods

Sustainable cultivation and safe agricultural production are needed to ensure the safety of all living organisms and ecosystems. Most agricultural foods currently contain unacceptable levels of pesticide residues. In an attempt to ensure pest control and high crop yields, farmers spray a large number of pesticides in quantities that exceed the safety limits for agricultural crops. Pesticide residues are highly toxic to humans, causing severe and even deadly diseases. Traditional analytical strategies for laboratory pesticide detection are often limited because they are time-consuming and require trained personnel, which makes them very costly. Hence, accurate, rapid, and on-site analysis of pesticides is drawing increasing attention for food safety reasons. Therefore, on-site or point-of-care (POC) detection of pesticide residues has become an approach of paramount importance. Recently, various portable detection technologies, such as colorimetric, fluorescence, electrochemical, surface plasmon resonance, chemiluminescence, phosphorescence, microfluidic, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering techniques, have been designed for on-site monitoring of pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits. These devices have demonstrated great power of detection in preclinical agricultural settings. This review highlights the emerging insights and novel advances in portable devices, POC technologies, and on-site sensing approaches for the detection of pesticide residues in agricultural foods. However, greater rigor in the design of portable pesticide-detection devices is essential. The increasing demand for rapid detection of hazardous pesticide components has prompted a timely opportunity to summarize recent developments and progress in portable devices and on-site sensing strategies to evaluate food safety.